Left to the Sea
by Fantasy Cat
Summary: AU Mid-Season 3 when I wrote this. After nearly a year in the Others captivity, Jack and Juliet are being freed in a cruel form...to remain adrift at sea until death. Jacket.


**This was originally posted on lostforum account (as rising_sun in Feb 07). I'm posting it here for the Jacket fans over at fanforum. It was originally titled "We Three in the Sea" which I thought was a stupid title.**

**Disc: This time, I won't forget: I don't own Lost or any of its characters. Please use the same disclaimer in my other Lost fics as well.**

**Characters: Jack, Juliet, others**

**Setting: mid Season 3...cuz that's when I wrote it. This is what prolonged Others-captivity for Jack would've been like and what would happen when they no longer needed him.**

.............

Jack felt the ground beneath him wobbling. It was moist as if he feel asleep in a creek. And then he saw the entire ground was seeping with water. His eyes looked up only to be blinded by the daylight. As soon as his senses were finally adjusted he looked up and saw the island (which he was a prisoner of for almost a year) was nowhere in sight.

That's when it occurred to him... the events of the night before.

_"I think I recall making a promise to you and Juliet that you would both leave this island," said Ben. Jack and Juliet were taken to the edge of the boat they were on at gunpoint._

_"Here's where I will be keeping that promise," said Ben._

_Jack looked over the boat expecting some sort of tugboat for him and Juliet to continue their journey, as the Others no longer wished to deal with them any further._

_But all he saw was a large piece of wood, barely the size of a full bed mattress, barely keeping afloat in the water._

_"What the hell is this?!" Jack demanded._

_"Your ticket off the island," grinned Ben. "You never said where you wanted to go, only that you wanted off."_

Now Jack recalled the blow to the head, which resulted in him awakening at sea. He looked over at Juliet who was also coming to terms with their fate had led them.

"I think this was Ben's way of keeping his word and to get rid of us," said Juliet. Jack looked over at the backpack which surprisingly made it onto the Others' poor excuse of a raft. There was only one bottle of fresh water and very few rations within the bag.

Cruel and unusual was the best way to put their situation.

The floating wooden board had barely enough room for both Jack and Juliet to lie down on. There was not a single moment in which the "raft" was dry as the waves were cruelly seeping water into the wood, making it possibly weaker. But it had to be strong. Otherwise the both of them would've been struggling in the ocean currents by now.

Jack's eyes struggled to look as far out around his ocean surroundings as possible. No sight of land. The Others purposely exiled the both of them in the direction of the seas were no rescue would be possible and the hot sun would only bring their end closer.

Jack shook his head.

"You know the baby's gonna come anyday now. It's gonna come while we're out here."

"I know," said Juliet. She looked down at her enormous belly before lying back on the wet board in a hidden despair.

Jack began to notice the sweat in Juliet's face and would sit down by her head to provide the bit of shade that he could best provide. The water that was seeping into the wood was warm and discomforting to the both of them. Jack had to protect the bag of their measly rations from getting wet.

With every hour that was passing, he knew that the Others' meant for all of them to die in a day or two.

"Let me know when you need water," said Jack. Neither of them have had anything to drink since awakening on the board.

"I told you I don't want it," she groaned. Her eyes were barely opened and her head was throbbing.

"I don't care. Dehydration is not gonna help you or the baby right now," said Jack. He couldn't figure out whether it was the heat or the stress of their doom getting at him the most. "Get up and drink."

Despite Juliet's refusal, she finally gave in and took a few sips. Only a few. She knew that if she remained flat and motionless on the floating board that she could delay labor for at least another day.

The stars began to appear. Night was coming on fast and so was greater stress for Jack.

"I think the tide took us a different direction," said Juliet who stared at the darkening sky. "Ben wanted us to go farther away from land but we seem to be turning around."

"It wouldn't matter," said Jack. "Even if we were turning back towards the island it would be days more before we get back."

That was the last Jack heard Juliet speak for a while. But in an attempt to hold onto any hope that they had, Jack kept his eyes in the direction Juliet believed that they were headed. Their journey began on the opposite side of where Jack's fellow Flight 815 companions were. The slightest bit of hope that Juliet was trying to instill into Jack was that the tide was turning and would slowly carry them to the island where the other 815 survivors were. He remembered Sawyer telling them how the ocean seemed to always find a way to bring them back to the island, the island was now called "home". And Jack would actually give anything now to be on the same sand as the people he had not seen in nearly a year since he was captured. He wouldn't even mind seeing Kate or Sawyer again just as long as he and Juliet could get off this god-forsaken raft in time.

The Others were clever though. After a year in their hands, Jack knew that Ben's cancer would go into remission and that the Others could go back to doing what they did best. Jack and Juliet did too much against them though and to allow them to go away and live their lives was not something they wanted.

In the end, Jack could only blame himself. He couldn't trust Juliet to begin with and for endless months they both suffered. He wanted nothing more to do with taking care of the Others, especially when Ben turned it into a cruel process. Had he believed Juliet, it could've meant freedom for all of them. Now Ben was able to break Jack into new cruel ways. Juliet had been there all that time, though he didn't want to admit it. He was responsible for her and that's why he felt it necessary to keep the both of them out of the Others' harm.

Who knew that he would be happy that he did saved her life?

After it was discovered that Juliet was pregnant however, Jack was surprised that the Others' responded to it as nothing. He knew at that point, something was up as the months passed and Ben was recovering. In the same month that the baby would be due Ben would declare that both Jack and Juliet were no longer needed. Since Juliet was marked some time back, the baby would be rejected by the Others as well.

"Jack."

He did not like how Juliet called his name.

"I tried Jack. My water is going to break any minute."

"It's alright," Jack assured her. He crawled over to the other side of the board. The tide was thankfully calmer for this but when he got to the other side his eyes caught a dreadful movement in the ocean.

"Just great," Jack grunted.

"What is it?" asked Juliet.

"Sharks."

At that moment her water broke and there was no turning back.

In between Juliet's struggles to push, Jack desperately checked the bag for anything that would relieve them of this nightmarish situation. Often he would look back at the water to locate the sharks. They were close but he knew as soon as the baby came, as soon as the board would be stained with blood, that they would arrive.

That's when he found a hidden unopened pocket in the backpack. He felt something large and oddly shaped. He opened the pocket and took out a revolver. There were only two bullets in it. He remembered how Sawyer and Michael got out of their similar situation. However there were about three or four sharks, making the sole two bullets completely worthless.

On his soaking knees Jack had to worry about the sharks later and went back to tending to Juliet. She was far too calm about the situation which scared Jack more than anything. Juliet then managed to find a break in between her contractions.

"Jack, listen to me." Jack did not like where this was going.

"You want to get out of here, you deliver this baby and then I want you to push me into water and get this thing as far away from here as you can."

Jack shook his head. "Are you being serious?"

"I'm being serious. They're not going to ignore the smell of blood," Juliet moaned referring to the sharks. The moaning could only mean that the contractions where starting up again.

"That's enough," said Jack.

"No! Those are Dharma sharks and they don't swim this far out into the ocean. You kick this thing away from here as soon as I get into the water and I promise you'll make it back to the island in a day…"

"I said knock it off!" Jack barked. He wasn't going to accept this. He was going to accept the silly notion of Juliet sacrificing herself just so the baby could go through this world without a mother.

When he thought about this, he now understood why the Others would pack a gun with only two bullets in the bag. He shoved all of those messed up thoughts out of his mind.

"I don't care what you believe right now," said Jack. "I'm going to get us out of this…all of us."

The tide began to pick up at that moment. A few more pushes to go…

Jack was not a stranger to delivering babies, he had been in situations where he delivered babies in restrooms, hallways, even once on a bus. He was lucky that his heart didn't explode from its speeding beats. Before he could even hear the baby's wailing, he cut the cord, took off his shirt to cover the baby and handed it over to Juliet. Then he quickly checked on the sharks. The blood began to seep with the water and the sharks were on their way.

He now had only one chance. Jack went for the gun. His first target was already chewing at the corner of the board far too close to his feet. He got him but he struggled to get the carcass off the boat. The sharks remained on Jack's side of board, and Juliet who could barely sit up struggled to hold her baby onto her stomach to keep it out of the water. At this point, the waves were striking Juliet's face. Water rushing in and out of her ears, she heard Jack pulled the trigger on the gun on last time.

The remaining two sharks began to pull back from the board but not without taking another chunk of the wood with them. The bag with the water and rations was gone. It wouldn't matter now, the board that held the three of them was tipping.

Jack was surrounded by the dark water in an instant. He would regret at that moment not knowing if he shared the board with a son or a daughter.

......

If this was the afterlife, then he prayed that his eyes would adjust in a second. But it took more than a second for the whiteness to become a light blue. Jack turned his head and his cheek felt the burning grains of sand. He looked at the two large dark feet which where approaching him, probably ready to kick sand in his face to make his eyes burn again.

"Uh…those are my feet. My face is up here, Doc."

Jack struggled in pain to get up and see. But then the voice came down to his level. And Jack was face to face with Sawyer.

"We almost didn't recognize you out there in all that chaos."

"What chaos?" moaned Jack.

"Man what a night, I mean we hear some baby crying and we assumed it was one of ours, because you know, babies like to annoy us at night like that. Then we hear someone whispering 'help'. Turns out all that noise was coming from the ocean. Even I got my wits scared outta me when Sayid and I got over there and we find a lady kicking a piece of board with a baby and a upside down doctor on it…it was like one of those weird situation dreams that turned out to be for real. You know...standard island moment."

"What…does that mean…what?"

"Yeah, nice to see you again too Doc. I would expect a much more formal greeting from you after not seeing ya for a year." Sawyer patted Jack on the back and walked away.

Cautiously Jack brought his legs up to see. All the tents, the people, the campfires…things he haven't seen since almost a year ago. All of the faces were headed in his direction, some with smiles on their faces. One of them was coming at Jack with full speed. In an instant Jack was embracing Kate.

"I don't know how you did it," she sobbed. "I wanted to come back for you so much."

"I know," said Jack, the first words his mind was able to finally make. Jack noticed a second being clinging to Kate's back.

"Is that…"

"Yeah that's mine." Kate turned to show the baby sleeping against her back.

"But then," said Jack. "Who's the…oh…"

There were many reunions, some simultaneously. But Jack knew his most important one was currently lying in a blue tent. Locke led him in and Jack began to hear the familiar cries he had only heard the night before. It was a speechless moment between the both of them, him and Juliet. He dropped by Juliet's side in exhaustion.

"I'm sorry. This isn't home," he said.

"No," said Juilet. "But it's freedom."

She smiled and handed the baby to Jack, allowing him the moment to hold his son.

THE END.


End file.
